I don't post on here a lot but am friends with a number of yall. I have a buddy who is a newbie and the other day after fishing over beverages he posed a question to me, "What is the best flies for fall trout? Specifically Browns and Specks?" It kind of caught me off guard because I had never really thought about how much my "working box" and my technique changes this time of year but he picked up on it and asked. So I pose this question to the years of experience on this board,

"What is the best flies for fall trout? Specifically Browns and Specks?"

In all seriousness, I'm going to assume that the Smokies aren't terribly different from PA, and judging from the info I got in prepping for my October trip from you guys ('you guys' is Yank for 'y'all'), it really isn't too different. I fish October Caddis a lot in late Sept/October. It's basically an EHC, size 14-10, tied w/ an orange body. I've been told this will work well! Big terrestials as well, and since the orange caddis works, you probably won't go wrong with orange stimies!

In the Fall I usually fish w/ a dropper too. That may be different from down there. Here, on our limestoners I drop and olive or tan scud, size 14-16, or a golden stonefly size 14-16. I've also had some success w/ a PT nymph, but that's a year round staple, I believe.

In another thread, we talked about messing around w/ orange soft hackles. I plan on giving that a try. I like soft hackles and like to trail them off dries more than I like to trail nymphs. From what I understand, the October Caddis as an actual hatch is more of a sub surface game than a top water fly.